Busy as Zs...summer update {sigh}

 **DISCLAIMER: I am ADD in person. {Get a little distracted lately??}**

I have had this typed up and ready to post and actually thought I HAD posted it already....so as FALL is here (today is 10/1/12) I will finally post the SUMMER update from July. {sigh}  

So far this school year, I have been busy preparing and placing items in my Etsy shop (keep watching, new things regularly :o) )  Steven is working 3 jobs and going to school, the kids are in THREE separate schools (elementary, middle and high school), after school sports, scouts at church and Tallen is a Tiger Cubscout at school, and activities.  BUSY!

OK - so here is the now OLD and informative post.  Info is still valid...  
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Summer is upon us and we are busy as bees here.

I have to start with LAST summer to lead into this one.
This is what we did in 2011:

• The MAJOR project : Steven took OFF the hideous front deck and replaced it with a huge dining room/craft space. It's really the biggest room we have beyond the living room, but it's close I think. Mostly FREE. Got the metal roof at Habitat for Humanity Restore, walls at Home Depot. OK maybe $150?  I'll update cost when I post about it. 
• Built the girls a queen sized loft bed & reading nook. So COOL.
• Built a queen sized platform bed (I guess that's what it is...we raised our bed high enough to have 10 totes under it and Missy has to have a set of steps to get on the bed.)
• Put in a cute table next to the washer and dryer. I know. big deal, right? No, this is a big deal.  We were blessed to be able to get a stackable washer/dryer set in the spring. The magic lies in the fact that they share the bathroom with a tub, vanity and toilet. So a CUTE - and FREE - table is great. Someplace to fold clothes and the litter box lives under the table. (That alone is awesome. Not out in the open as much. yuck)
• Put up a fenced area around the trash cans so they are not seen from the street. I hate that! And the grill hides there in the off season as well.

What we have doen THIS Summer (so far):

• Papered the dining room walls - some twice in fact! More about that another time. Cost of papering $10 - see? you want to hear this!
• Brought in & assembled the craft area furniture (YEAH!!!! I'm a bit excited about this.) I was able to get the IKEA Expedit. LOVE!! I got the 5x5!! 25 Glorious squares to use! Now comes the tough go-through-and-sort-and-make-everything-pretty part.  Also got the 2x4 (8 blocks) and the desk that hangs on to it. HeAvEn.  :o)
• Put up a rustic wood headboard in the master bedroom - interesting story. FREE!!
• Painted a few pieces of furniture to better suit our nowness (I know, I made that up but it suits me)
• "Built" a "stair" garden and planted it. FREE.
• Helped my in-laws tear off the porch and roof (we put the roof ON last summer...sigh) of their summer abode. They have a smallish 5th wheel they stay in in a campground in southern Michigan while escaping the heat in Florida.  They bought a new largish 5th wheel they are moving into place in the next few weeks so we were helping prepare for the removal of one and movement of the other -  SO worth it. (update - as this is being post AFTER move in; I will tell you that my MIL reported that she could live in it YEAR round if FIL would let her.  It's roomy - with the living room and bedroom opening up and coming out of the sides.  Light bright and lovely.  A very tiny home)
• I have sewn some SUPER cute ties for Tallen, a few shrugs for the girls and me, and a maxi skirt. I am LOVING skirts this summer. Swishy and feminine.  I have also knit a pair of baby socks for no one in particular, several pair of Mary Jane booties, worked on a pinwheel blanket for my newest Great niece, and made oodles of stitch markers and row counters to put in my Etsy shop. You can find it here: browniesforbrunch.etsy.com   **also - you can click the link to the right --->
• I have been attending (with glee) my monthly craft night with the girls from church!!  Lots of sewing going on right now.  I love that little bit of girl time out.  Time out for me is important. I come home refreshed and inspired.
• Does making a 4th of July display count?? I think so.  I took an old dresser outside and (still) plan on planting flowers in the drawers. I then put my beadboard flag and the "land that I love" blocks I made (at craft night) on it with a lantern - so cute!!

Plans still for this summer:

• finish the floor and ceiling in the dining room.  I think I will paper the floor as well and then stain it.  It will be lovely. Perhaps fabric on the ceiling?  We'll see what I find online to try.
• Make a banquet seat with storage from cabinets. I'm thrilled to have more storage!  We are half way through this project right now and so the cabinets are blocking my crafty table until Saturday when Steven returns from High Adventure.  He took off this evening with the boys to go to Pictured Rocks in upper Michigan. * As it was 100 degrees last week here, it was 72 there.  Beauty and fresh cool air sounds great. * 
• Make a farm table to replace the big oak table we currently have.  It seats 10-12 people and has 8 chairs. If you need a table soon....keep me in mind. Facebook message me. It will probably go on Craigslist otherwise.  
• Paint the teenager room.  THIS must be completed next week so as to have it finished BEFORE said teenagers return from visiting their Dad.  I want it done and pretty so I can take pictures.  They love the loft bed that Steven built them last summer. I know, no pictures yet...gotta have a clean room for that.  
• Make curtains for all the bedrooms, kitchen and dining room/craft room.  The heat just bears down sometimes and this will help.
• Make a cushion for the banquet and the chairs on the other side of the yet unmade table. ;o)
• Build a wall of  "built in" storage.  Our home is SMALL. Really small, and we need as much storage as we can get.  The Habitat for Humanity Restore got in an entire apartment complex worth of cabinets! So they are 75% off right off the bat because there are so many. We have two 6 foot strings for the banquet seat and plan to get more to cover the entire back wall of the living room. What else would I do with that wall???  I will then pass the shelves I have there now, on to someone else...Craigslist again?
• I so need a pot rack in the kitchen. That is on my (wish)list as well.  Actually...
• ** Put in the new kitchen** THAT is on my (NOW)list. We were able to get a great deal on some floor sample cabinets while Steven was at Home Depot last summer and have yet to install them.  That will be a major gut and redo. The cabinets we have now STILL have no doors and haven't for 2 yrs now (OF COURSE NOT!!!) A friend was stripping the nasty DARK BLUE and BROWN paint and priming them (that took about a year - they are NASTY and troublesome), then we got the new cabinets and they were going to be put in with a new counter and back splash and all, so I never bothered to put the doors back on. Not that they would fit anymore. I took down the trim work at the top and so the uppers are all too short now. We were GOING to put the new in but Steven felt we needed to make space to take the kitchen things out of the kitchen, so built the dining room first. That makes sense. That is done, so NoW iT Is TiMe FoR ThE KiTcHeN. (please oh please Honey??)
• Replace the tub and fixtures is on my list, but may not happen right away. Unless I suddenly find a white tub, facing the right direction, and the perfect size and price at the Habitat Restore. Then it moves up in front of the kitchen again.  {sigh}

I'm sure there are more I have forgotten.  Needless to say - we are busy Zs around here.  Lake visits, swimming in the pool, playing with friends, seeing Grandma & Grandpa, family reunions, etc., etc. !!

Have a great summer!!

Technology How I love Thee

There are times that I can not drive for 10 minutes without the children bickering about something. Those times are not fun. But while driving all those 48 hrs., the children were MOSTLY good. There was that once in Kentucky that I threatened to strap the girls to the roof rack and let them fight it out up there and the other time while at the Goodwill that I said I might try to auction all three off on the door step. 
I assure you, I will neither strap then on top of the van nor sell them to the highest bidder, but the temptation is always there when they are bickering in the back seat.  Overall they were well behaved. But perhaps that has something to do with the DVDs playing through the trip! I was going to be thankful for my children this post, but I guess I'm ACTUALLY very grateful for technology.
Technology how I love thee, let me count the ways!
I am thankful for DVDs that entertain, for laptops to play them on, for the Redbox kiosks along the way at which to rent a new movie to catch the children’s interest, and the extra jack in the van to plug the computer into. I love how you can rent a movie in Michigan and return it in Kentucky!!
Note to self: Rent more than one in the actual towns…as the kiosk at the McDonalds at the exit off the highway had NO movies left in it!! Sad but true.
I am grateful for a phone smart enough to show us the way and tell me the turns to make AND play music at the same time! Gotta LOVE my WAZE GPS and Pandora! Both played through the radio - nice. Especially since I didn’t want to listen to RIO 3 more times as I drove. 

Summer Vacation

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for Sariah & Miranda to go hang with Dad (Adam) for 5 VERY long weeks. It's a change in routine and rules and they get nervous...and come home with plenty of stories. Some good, others not so much.

I have to say though...the 5 week block is not nearly as disruptive as the "every other weekend, every Tuesday, alternate Thursdays on the weeks he doesn't have the wkend. And 3 days on/4 days off in the summer" that we did before he moved to GA in 2005. At least this way they don't miss too many activities. We sign up for the reading program at the library before they go and they can earn prizes...and can even do the library program down there. We'll see.

The best indicator of future action is to look at the past actions.

It IS getting more difficult to explain to Tallen where 'the sissies' are. He asks me "woa-woa"? (which stands for BOTH Sariah and Miranda oddly enough) I can safely answer with "She's with her Dad." And then he says - "yeah-dad." He'll get used to it. I may never...